Tied with the clock running inside 10 seconds, Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin could have called timeout to set up his final shot.
Instead, he opted to trust senior point guard Troy Caupain to carry the 14th-ranked Bearcats across the finish line.
"I have a lot of faith in Troy," Cronin said. "It's not a hard decision not to call timeout when you have the ball in a senior's hands late in the game."
Caupain affirmed Cronin's faith in him, drilling an 18-foot jumper from right of the key with 4.4 seconds left to cap a dramatic comeback in the last six minutes Wednesday night as Cincinnati dumped Tulsa 57-55 in an American Athletic Conference showdown at the Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Okla.
It was the last of a game-high 15 points for Caupain, who also tied the game by converting a 3-point play off a runner in the lane with 38.2 seconds remaining. Following a Golden Hurricane turnover, Caupain finished off his team's 16-3 run with his winning shot.
Tulsa (12-9, 6-3) led 52-41 with 6:01 left after a Sterling Taplin tip-in, but didn't score another field goal. Its final possession also ended in a turnover, as Taplin lost the ball on a drive down the line. Kevin Johnson came up with it just before time expired.
It was a bitter defeat for the Golden Hurricane, which could have stamped itself as a contender for the AAC title but instead frittered away a terrific chance for a signature win that would have added much-needed heft to a light NCAA at-large resume.
Trailing 36-32 with 16:52 remaining after a Gary Clark jumper, Tulsa hit the Bearcats (20-2, 9-0) with a 20-5 run that lasted nearly 11 minutes. It used quickness to get to the bucket off the dribble and also got mileage out of a 3-2 zone as Cincinnati simply couldn't make a shot, especially from the perimeter.
What disturbed Cronin more than anything else for most of the game was that the Bearcats, who pride themselves on defense and rebounding, lost most of the 50-50 balls.
"Tulsa was more physical than us for most of the evening," Cronin said. "They were focused on being more physical and winning the rebounding war, and it almost got us beat. We were trying to shoot our way to victory instead of scrap our way to victory."
On the brink of seeing its 12-game winning streak end, Cincinnati figured it out. It finally took away the Golden Hurricane's dribble penetration and started to force turnovers. When Tulsa did get a shot, the Bearcats finally sealed off the glass.
"Two things happened: We got some shots to fall and we were able to finish possessions with a defensive rebound, which was a struggle all night," Cronin said. "We came up with some deflections and some steals."
Jarod Evans dunked off a steal with 3:28 left to cut the Golden Hurricane's lead to 54-47, then drained a 3 with 2:49 left to make it 54-50. Kyle Washington converted a stickback at the 1:36 mark to slice the Tulsa edge to two.
The Golden Hurricane's only point in the last four minutes was a Junior Etou free throw with 1:19 remaining. Just before Caupain's game-tying 3-point play, Taplin missed the front end of a one-and-one that could have given Tulsa a two-possession lead.
Evans and Washington finished with 10 points each for Cincinnati, which was held 21 points under its per-game average.
Jaleel Wheeler paced the Golden Hurricane with 13 points. Etou and Martins Igbanu tallied 10 apiece.
"You're going to get beat most nights when you get beat in points in the paint and second-chance points," Cronin said. "But we got loose balls and stops at the end. It was a learning experience, and I thought we did a great job at the end."
NOTES:
-- Cincinnati's Jarron Cumberland is the reigning AAC Player of the Week. Cumberland, who hasn't started any of the team's 22 games this season, averaged 20.5 ppg last week in wins over Xavier and South Florida.
-- Tulsa entered Wednesday night's game with a 12-game winning streak at home against AAC foes.
-- The Golden Hurricane have received 65.5 percent of their scoring (921 points) from players who weren't on the roster last year.
